August 26, 2008

It's me and Megan McArdle on Bloggingheads!

Topics:
Joe Biden: the exciting/boring choice (06:07)
Is Hillary better off if Obama loses? (04:13)
Don’t we all aspire to own so many houses that we lose count? (03:46)
Irreligious Megan defends religion’s role in politics (13:53)
The psychology of online trolls (07:44)
Why Ann and Megan drive the commenters crazy (06:47)
Some good stuff in there. I'll resist doing a whole lot of clips, but will try to find something very short and pithy to amuse you.

22 comments:

Host with the Most said...

I am Proud to be the first to suggest McArdle to you for a Bloggingheads

(Blush)

Trooper York said...

When Megan put her arm up and leaned forward to let her giant head fill the entire left side of the screen, I confess that I threw up in my mouth a little.

Don't scare us like that.

Trooper York said...

And I bet Simon and Mort are pretty excited that you envision them posting comments at you while they are in their underpants.

Ger said...

We're easily amused here so anything will do...and no more than 30 seconds or so... we also have ADD so we usu

Ron said...

[checks] huh, I've got long pants AND underpants, so put me down as a "no" in the Althouse What-Is-Going-On-Underneath-Your-Clothes poll...

There's a cool poll idea...

Ron said...

so I put up the

poll!

AlphaLiberal said...

Who is Megan McArdle?

vbspurs said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
vbspurs said...

Oh my goodness. That's a novel take on why Biden was chosen, Ann.

Because he's the unpolitically correct uncle we all have, who blurts out the most inane things about minorities, but you can forgive him because he's just not a racist at heart.

Except, yeah, he kinda is if he talks about a black guy being articulate and clean, and having to put on Indian accents at the 7 Eleven.

But it makes us comfortable that he's around, because we look less racist compared to him, and secretly let him say all the things we'd like to say, if we could.

Obama-Archie Bunker '08.

Cheers,
Victoria

vbspurs said...

Wow, Megan doesn't think Hillary stands a chance at running again?

Interesting.

I think if Obama doesn't win in '08, HE doesn't stand another chance. Hillary won't give up just like that.

Megan says: "Who the hell is going to give her money?"

Well, I can think of at least 18 million people who just might. And women who wanted to vote for a woman for President, just suddenly won't change their genders in 4 years.

Hillary '12 will start immediately after November 4, regardless of who wins.

Fen said...

You need to dump that NYTs loser and go hang out in the Pajama's Media brand. They need a true liberal to balance out their very intelligent bloggers [waves to Capt Ed]

vbspurs said...

Re: McCain being cranky.

Not waiting for him to be just cranky, but actually volcanic.

They're waiting, and waiting.

Like they're still waiting for Bush to blow up at some protester, and to show his devil-fascist side.

But you get the sense these guys are reformed, not just by circumstances, but by ambition.

Dubya dumped the booze and the coke, John dumped the anger and the broads.

And now they're rather "safe", to use a Victorianism.

I don't think the people waiting for these guys to self-implode will get their wish.

I do, however, think that there was a window of opportunity for Obama to slip up (after the bitter guns, and sweetie), but he's tightened himself up a lot since then.

Ann Althouse said...

"but you can forgive him because he's just not a racist at heart"

No, that wasn't the theory. The theory was that since Obama accepted him, we can feel more comfortable about race. We want to feel good about ourselves.

vbspurs said...

Understood. I think I got your point when I was actually listening to you making it.

But then, I started to run with the theory (not all of them expressed above).

What if, not only did Obama telegraph with the Biden pick, that, hey, it's okay to make comments like Joe has done in the past about race, and therefore feel more comfortable about race...

...but that his past slip-ups might presage some in the future?

Then we'll feel good about ourselves if we agree, because Joe Biden has gotten the thumbs-up from Obama himself.

I wonder what Jesse Jackson feels about this pick?

We all know that Hymietown is okay, and not racist (because black preachers cannot be racist, they just speak the truth /sarc tag) but it must grate his nutmeg that someone as clueless as Joe Biden has been chosen.

Simon said...

I think Megan makes the mistake of assessing Clinton's likely actions based on Megan's assessment of Hillary's political future rather than Hillary's assessment thereof. Hillary is going to base her decisions on what she thinks is going to happen in 2012 not what a rational, dispassionate observer concludes is most likely to happen in 2012.

Simon said...

Trooper, I hate to burst the bubble, but while I can't speak for Mort, that's never happened here.

vbspurs said...

I'm now at min 39:17 and must go for the moment. Just to mention this comment, under the diavlog:

Often times, Ann is completely lacking intellectual honesty. During the last diavlog, in particular, with Bob was her completely void of follow through.

This is how it must appear to others unaware of how Ann operates. There is very little follow-through because Ann is used to setting the pace, not following the train of thought. She wants you to think for yourself, and to challenge what you just said, to refine the logic.

An occupational hazard, perhaps, but frankly, a welcome change. Almost all the other diavlogs finely parse each bloggers' opinions and come to a standstill because of it.

Simon said...

Actually, neither Mort nor I are trolls, so that's just not applicable to us, Troop. :p

chickelit said...

Doesn't MM get that smoking blog is all about talking back to the TV?

Seriously, I've read links to her stuff before, and really liked it.

She is disappointing live-here at least-very much giving off a sort of urban hipper-than-thou arrogance. JMO

Anonymous said...

Interesting that McArdle's metric for a successful presidential candidate is one who manages to avoid a major screw-up during the campaign. A deep thinker, that one...

And as for the Biden will make us feel better about ourselves by comparison idea? Best buried quickly. It's already starting to smell.

Simon said...

Ah, AJD's back to bring us more dispatches from the land of jealousy, determined to find some way to convince her/himself and everyone else that s/he doesn't really have that all-encompassing crush on Althouse...

There are more productive ways to handle the emotion, you know.

bearbee said...

re: Why Ann and Megan drive the commenters crazy, Malkin wins hands down.